Magazine: The Superintendents Guide to Controlling Green Speed
By Thomas A. Nikolai in Golf on 10th Aug 2008 10:55
This article has been supplied by the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute (NZSTI). NZSTI is New Zealand's leading sports turf consultancy group, recognised by SPARC (Sport and Recreation NZ) as the "standard setting body" for turf maintenance and management. They can offer advice for all natural and synthetic turf surfaces.
The author, Thomas A. Nikolai, wrote this book for all the Superintendents out there who have heard that their greens were too fast and too slow on the same day, something I often hear myself. Thomas was the research technician for Paul E. Rieke at Michigan State University for ten years and the book is based on his research and working with Superintendents in his local area. The book looks to dispel many myths that keeping Putting Green Speeds fast will eventually kill the grass.
The book opens “Speed does not kill grass! Haste, ignorance, stubbornness, complacency and rash uninformed decisions may kill grass, but speed does not!” After reading this opening paragraph the author then gives you an excellent background into the history of putting green speeds and the tool
that has caused many an ill-informed debate around the boardroom table, the Stimpmeter. Also, covered in various lengths are chapters on The Weather, Putting Green Root Zones, Turf Species, Mowing Heights, Fertilisation, Rolling and Integrated Approach to Green Speed Management. The data within the book will certainly challenge many Kiwi Superintendents ideas regarding how to achieve consistent green speeds. However, it does provide a number of ideas that even the smallest club could use to provide more consistent surfaces for your clubs members.
I found this book very easy to read and for a self confessed sports page reader it only took a few days to read. The book challenged the methods I currently use on our greens with research data on various physical techniques that have been proven to work on all types of turf (Poa annua, Bentgrass and Bermuda) under all types of climates. I especially found the section on Fertilisation very helpful and have already integrated several of the books techniques into our Fertiliser plan at the club. The book summarises the law of diminishing return, i.e. at a certain point it is no longer possible to achieve a better result in an economic fashion. A practical demonstration of this law is a double cut green may roll at 11 feet on the Stimpmeter, but a quadruple cut green may only roll at 11 feet 2 inches. The extra time taken to gain two inches of speed is no longer financially viable for most clubs. On the down side like many American books all the data is in imperial format. It is a bit annoying having to reach for the conversion calculator every time an imperial unit is used. But the tables and diagrams are generally easy to follow and provide enough evidence that the author knows what he is talking about.
I agree with the Author that the Course Superintendent should provide putting green surfaces to a speed that suits the contour of your clubs greens and your membership’s requirements. The book gives you a great method of finding out what your membership’s preferred green speed is, but be prepared this may be something that the clubs budget cannot achieve. From my technical and practical point of view, it would be hard to reach for this book before I looked at James Beard’s – Turf Management for Golf Courses, as I find Beard’s publication a great source for golf course greens maintenance and it has chapters very similar to parts of this book.
I believe this book is aimed at clubs who want to achieve day to day putting green speeds that do not vary too much with the seasons. It is a useful tool for Superintendents with challenging Course Committees/Boards and one I would recommend you read if substantial putting green speeds are your goal.
The NZ Turf Management Journal is printed quarterly (Feb, May, Aug,
Nov) and is specifically tai lored to the turf industry with a range of topical, technical and research articles, book reviews and trade information
www.nzsti.org.nz
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that has caused many an ill-informed debate around the boardroom table, the Stimpmeter. Also, covered in various lengths are chapters on The Weather, Putting Green Root Zones, Turf Species, Mowing Heights, Fertilisation, Rolling and Integrated Approach to Green Speed Management. The data within the book will certainly challenge many Kiwi Superintendents ideas regarding how to achieve consistent green speeds. However, it does provide a number of ideas that even the smallest club could use to provide more consistent surfaces for your clubs members.
